Last weekend Dan and I went to Bayfield, WI to attend a marina member meeting. It was strange to see the area in the winter. After the meeting we went to Madeline Island (2 miles across) for a dinner benefit. We drove across the "ice road" to get to the island. I'm not a fan of driving on ice with snowmobile and certainly not a vehicle. It was however a well cleared road with many vehicles using it daily. They run the ferry until the ice starts to freeze and then they use a "Windsled" (http://www.been-seen.com/article.cfm?id=10637) to transport the kids, teachers and others to school and jobs on the mainland. The commercial fishing boats and the ferries are stored in the main Bayfield city harbor...frozen in the ice. I thought they took them out of the water and stored them on land (some of the big tour boats are stored on land) and was surprised to see them in the 'water'. Anyway it was great to be up there again and I thought you might enjoy some of the photos.
Bayfield in the Winter
Commercial Fishing Boat
Ice Road to Madeline Island
Winter Storage for Commercial Fishing boats
Travel at your own risk
Nice pics, Carol. That ice road is amazing. Not at all what I pictured when I heard Nancy descibe it. Pictures truly are worth a thousand words.
There are as many ice roads in MN/WI as there are lakes. It's a good way to get to ice houses for ice fishing and a means of transportation like this one. Cool huh?!
What is the thickness of the ice? I'd want to know that before I took my car out. And I'd surely want at least one car moving in front of me -- if he goes in, I can back out, waving farewell. I loved the pictures.
That is cool. Ice road - wow. It's a wonder cars can get traction on ice. Beautiful pictures. Love the scenery.
Aunt Ginnie, I don't really know how thick the ice is but Dan says it would be at least 2 feet thick (he guesses). I was comfortable going on it since there were many other cars using it and have been for weeks and weeks. Janine it is weird that a car can get traction, but there is a layer of snow on top so it really feels like you're driving on a regular road.
Cool pictures! John says he remembers a "maintained" road across Lake Pepin that even semi trucks used when he was younger(road grader parked at the lake to keep the road plowed). There are lots of roads on the lake around here. March 3rd was the last day you could have a permanent fish house on the lake---now just those tent type that can be taken down at the end of the day. The road to Madeline Island looks like a super highway to me!
Yeah, it felt like a regular road. Though I'm glad it was just 2 miles across ;o)